Late night musings

This past week marks one year from my father's passing. It's made me rather contemplative over things like family, friends and life. I'm so glad he had the chance to know that a grandchild was on the way, but it would have been so nice if he could have met her and held her. I know he would be so thrilled with her. When we were in the hospital visiting him, I asked him for recommendations for a Chinese middle name for the baby. (this was before we knew the gender). Translated, they were Big Strength (for a boy) and Big Reason (for a girl). He said these were things that he would want for his grandchildren. Peggy teased him and said that Big Strength was a name that was just asking for trouble. Mom said that she didn't care much for those names. Later, he told us that we should name him/her whatever we want, but he would like it if we gave the child a name that was related to the sea. Mom and my aunt (whom we call Ah Sum - - my dad's sister-in-law) came up with Juliana's middle name which translates to Bright Water Crystal. She (Mom) wanted something that would be easy to write and provide less of a ridicule factor when she gets older.

Juliana seems to be taking after my dad in at least one way (they were both born in the year of the Boar, by the way). Dad loved good food and I think she must have inherited this from him. She enjoys eating and is very interested in everything that we eat. We're holding off on introducing her to table food until next month, to give her digestive system time to mature (given Derek's family history of food allergies, it's probably better for her). In the meantime, I let her smell some of the foods we eat. Some things she's happy to just smell, but when they smell particularly interesting, she leans forward with an open mouth toward the scent. Granted, she tried to eat a candle her Uncle Wes offered her to smell (I think it had some basil and lime in it?), but at least it smelled like things used to season foods. If she tried to eat a candle that smelled like pine needles, I'd be a little more worried.

This will be a long week (or two) ahead. Baby's teething, so she's not sleeping through the night yet. She was close to it before the teeth started coming in, but now all that is out the window. I've decided I'm going to try to take steps to help her learn to soothe herself to sleep at night. Various things I've read talk about laying the baby down to sleep before they nod off so that they associate sleep with their bed. and sound machines. and not picking the baby up when they cry, but resting a hand on their tummy and making calming noises. I'm not sure which method will work for us, but I will give some a try. If any of you out there have any recommendations of what worked for you, I'd be happy to give a listen.

Here's a recent picture of the little sweetie giving those teeth a little workout:


Ok... I really don't think of her as a zombie, but the expression on her face just made me think of those campy B-movies where they say things like "Just one little taste? Please?" Derek thinks that elephant brains are a good choice, as they never forget.

This next picture cracked me up, as it was totally unintentional. I had her sitting in the corner of the recliner for a picture, and not being an expert at sitting up, she tilted to her side and rested on her outstretched arm. What I didn't notice at the time, was what her left hand was doing. She has this recent habit of reaching for and grabbing onto her foot or pantleg, usually during diaper changes when she's just chilling on her back. I guess she never thought to move that hand as she lost her balance and this is what resulted...

Ahhh, the collection of embarrassing photos starts.